Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small

things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry,
biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.
How
it
Started

The ideas and concepts behind nanoscience and nanotechnology started with a talk
entitled �There�s Plenty of Room at the Bottom� by physicist Richard Feynman at an
American Physical Society meeting at the California Institute of Technology
(CalTech) on December 29, 1959, long before the term nanotechnology was used. In
his talk, Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to
manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules. Over a decade later, in his
explorations of ultraprecision machining, Professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term
nanotechnology. It wasn't until 1981, with the development of the scanning
tunneling microscope that could "see" individual atoms, that modern nanotechnology
began.
Fundamental
Concepts
in
Nanoscience
and
Nanotechnology
Medieval stained glass window courtesy of NanoBioNet
Medieval stained glass windows are an example of how nanotechnology was used
in the pre-modern era. (Courtesy: NanoBioNet)

It�s hard to imagine just how small nanotechnology is. One nanometer is a billionth
of a meter, or 10-9 of a meter. Here are a few illustrative examples:

There are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch

A sheet of newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers thick
On a comparative scale, if a marble were a nanometer, then one meter would be
the size of the Earth

Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve the ability to see and to control individual
atoms and molecules. Everything on Earth is made up of atoms�the food we eat, the
clothes we wear, the buildings and houses we live in, and our own bodies.

But something as small as an atom is impossible to see with the naked eye. In fact,
it�s impossible to see with the microscopes typically used in a high school science
classes. The microscopes needed to see things at the nanoscale were invented
relatively recently�about 30 years ago.

Once scientists had the right tools, such as the scanning tunneling microscope
(STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), the age of nanotechnology was born.

Although modern nanoscience and nanotechnology are quite new, nanoscale materials
were used for centuries. Alternate-sized gold and silver particles created colors
in the stained glass windows of medieval churches hundreds of years ago. The
artists back then just didn�t know that the process they used to create these
beautiful works of art actually led to changes in the composition of the materials
they were working with.

Today's scientists and engineers are finding a wide variety of ways to deliberately
make materials at the nanoscale to take advantage of their enhanced properties such
as higher strength, lighter weight, increased control of light spectrum, and
greater chemical reactivity than their larger-scale counterpart